Gadgets designed at CMU work off gestures, brain signals

On the Grid

From the shale fields to the cooling towers, Trib Total Media covers the energy industry in Western Pennsylvania and beyond. For the latest news and views on gas, coal, electricity and more, check out On the Grid today.

Daily Photo Galleries

Business Photo Galleries

Gestris is a cool game, but don't expect to see it on store shelves next to Nintendo Wii systems anytime soon.

Players use body gestures -- but no controller or special clothing -- to move pieces on a big screen in the Tetris-style game that researchers at the Intel Corp.'s Pittsburgh Research Lab developed.

"It's a little showcase," Intel's Padmananabhan "Babu" Pillai said Tuesday as the lab at Carnegie Mellon University's Collaborative Innovation Center showed off its latest futuristic work at an open house.

"In the future, we would like to enable much richer interfaces in the home. Imagine that you could point to the TV and say, 'Volume up,' " he said.

Computers and robots that read humans' wants and needs more easily than ever before -- making the mouse, game controller and other gadgets relics of the past -- were a common theme among the dozens of projects demonstrated.

Intel opened its local center eight years ago, and 23 researchers now collaborate with faculty from universities including CMU and the University of Pittsburgh, medical experts from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center -- plus 20 to 25 students at any given time.

"Mostly, Intel research is engaged in trying to understand where computing is going. And where it is going is a combined enterprise of hardware and software and, ultimately, human beings," said Andrew A. Chien, vice president and director of research at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company.

Intel, the world's biggest maker of microprocessors -- the brain in every computer -- has 11 research centers near universities.

Machines, in other words, must interact with people in more natural ways, reading their gestures and even brain signals. "That's where we see the future as being," said Rahul Sukthankar, senior principal research scientist at the Pittsburgh lab.

"It's no longer just spreadsheets and word processers. It's really interacting with humans in their environment."

Beyond gesture or voice recognition, computers might respond to facial expressions or realize when a person is thinking about airplanes, for example, just by reading brain activity patterns consistent with that topic.

"Long range, you might be able to think about an object and do a Web search, for example" without touching a keyboard, researcher Dean Pomerleau said.

Several projects center on health care. One tracks the growth of stem cells, while another compares images of a patient's suspicious-looking mole to thousands of other pictures in a large database to help detect skin cancer. "Doctors told us a lot of times, they are not quite sure about what they are seeing," researcher Mei Chen said.

Another, necklace-like device could help dieters. Most people eat more than they realize, said CMU computer scientist Jie Yang, who worked on the project.

But a tiny computer could recognize food items on a plate, compile calorie and fat data for every meal and factor in the wearer's activity for the day. Standard, fast-food fare from major restaurant chains is being used to test the system, he said.

Intel also is dabbling in home computer networks that transfer data faster, using the combined wireless capabilities of the devices in a whole neighborhood. Users could borrow capacity from neighbors when they need it to send large files.

"One of the things I cannot do very effectively today is show my baby to my mother in Greece," researcher Dina Papagiannaki said, adding she and partner Michael Kaminsky have talked with Verizon Communications Corp. and other Internet service providers and were surprised to find, "They liked this idea."

Intel's Jason Campbell described projects that could use millions of tiny sphere-like computers to build objects that change their shape upon command.

Rather than drawing an object on a screen, "it appears out of a vat on your desk," he said. And everyday objects such as a cell phone could change form to provide the user with a keyboard, or fit around his ear.

Lily Mummert keeps honeybees at her home in North Strabane in Washington County, and in her role with Intel, she's developing a video system that measures the activity of bee colonies without impeding their movement as current technologies that use infrared sensors might.

Given worldwide declines in bee populations, "With this, maybe we could catch a colony collapsing early enough to do something about it," she said.

TribLive commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments  either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

Print Source

Welcome to PrintSource, a division of Trib Total Media.

We have established a veteran team that provides daily and weekly newspaper companies with a comprehensive set of services that include design, print, packaging and delivery of their products, all from one source and location.

Gone are the days when each facet of newspaper printing and delivery had to be outsourced to different companies and venues. Now, PrintSource provides a viable solution with just one phone call.

Digital Sales

We offer a wide variety of traditional and new digital advertising options customized to fit your needs!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been a keystone in the community for years, our knowledgeable staff can provide you with a customized package including online banners/advertisements, Social Media Marketing (Facebook / Twitter), Website development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing solutions and much more!

Contact your local sales rep today for details, personalized proposal and a meeting to discuss how we can meet your needs.